Roof opening apparatus for railroad freight cars



Feb. 24, 1953 J. L. KOVACHICK 2,629,339

ROOF OPENING APPARATUS FOR RAILROAD FREIGHT CARS Filed Aug. 10. 1950 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 JJZKovackz'ck INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

Feb. 24, 1953 J. L. KovAcHicK 2,629,339

ROOF OPENING APPARATUS FOR RAILROAD FREIGHT CARS Filed Aug. 10. 1950 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 BY I 1 I I 'A'I'IORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 24, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROOF OPENING APPARATUS FQR RAILROAD FREIGHT CA'RS.

Joseph; L. Kovachick, Turtle Greek- Pa. Application August 10, 1950;, Serial-.No. 178,685

3.1 Claims. 1

This invention. relates to apparatus for open.- ing and closing the roof of a railroad: box car or. the; like. i

In. general, railroad: box. cars are loaded from the sidathrough. doors located intermediate the opposite. ends of the. car; While these. doors are 0t substantial; size, they are nevertheless small in size. as compared to. the. overall length and cubic area-of. the; car, and in actuality open, only the. middle: part of the car. Asa result, freight handlers are: required: to move freight loaded through. said doors toward the opposite ends of the. car, so as topack. said car fully.

As will be appreciated, by reason of the present construction. of. box. cars and the loading practices required by such construction, the loading of. a single. box car is a time-consuming and expensive operation, considerin the number of. helpers. or handlers required, and con sidering. further the limited opening into the box car through. which all the freight must pass for manual. packing intheends of the car.

The. present invention has as. its main purpose the elimination of. these. objections which have heretofore. existed, by the provision of an apparatus whereby, in a matter of seconds, the en.- tire. roof of the. box car is adjusted either to open. or. closed position as desired for loading and unloading. of. the. freight through. said. roof opening.

Another important object. is to. provide apparatus. of. the type stated whereby, when. said roof is adjusted to. fully opened position, the entire interior of the box. car, from endto end and. side. to. side. thereof, is. exposed completely,

for deposit of freight at. any location in the. car. Yet another object is to. provide shipping apparatus of. the; character described wherein the means for. opening and closing the car. roof occupies. a. small space atone. end. of said car. and takes. up practically none of. the room required for loading of. the freight, and additionally, provides. no bulky mechanism which: will. interfere with. the actual movement of the freight into and' out; of. the root opening.

Still another important object is to provide apparatus. of the. type. stated which canbe. ap..

plied to. box: cars. already in use. at relatively low expense, considering, the. benefits to: be. obtained. With. the foregoing, and other objects in view which will appear as the. description proceeds, the invention. consists of. certain novel details. of construction and combinations of. parts, here.- i'nafter more fully described and pointed. out. in the claims, it being understood that changes 2. may be. made in the. construction and; arrangement of parts without. departing. from the spirit of the. invention. as. claimed- Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is a transverse section through a box car equipped with. the. present. invention, the roof being shown. in. closed position.

Fig. 2. ,is a. fragmentary transverse section through. the. car, parts. being, broken away, the roof being shown in opened, position.

3:. is. an. enlarged section taken substan tially on line; 3-3 of. Fig. 2.

Fig. 4. is a section-,. still. further taken on line 4-4 of, Fig. 3.. i

Fig... 5 is; an enlarged section taken substahtially on line. fi -5. of. Fig.

Fig... 6 is an enlarged section. taken. substantially. on. line. 6-& of. 3.

Referring. tov the. drawings in detail, illustrated. in Figs. 1 and 2 is a conventional box car construction. including the floor I, side walls 2-,. and end wall 3..

At opposite. ends of said box car, I extend transversely across. the car, close to. the roof thereof, the. pairs of. parallel channel members l which, as readily seen from. Fig. 4,. are faced inwardly toward. each. other to define rails 01' tracks for a rollable portion of the apparatus, in a manner to. be made apparent hereinafter.

The opposite. ends of said pairs of horizontal 1y extending tracks. a are rigidly secured in. any suitable manner to. the opposite. side walls 2.

Since. the. construction'at. opposite ends of. the railroad. car is identical,, the description here* inafter will be. confined to. the construction at oneend only of said. car... Itwill, nevertheless be understood that the description applies to the other end as well, both. ends. of the roof opening means. being operated from. a common source for simultaneous operation.

Accordingly, considering the rails or. tracks 4 at one end. of said railroad car, intermediate the opposite ends of the trackway defined by said rails there. is, rigidly mounted between the rails a. horizontally disposed hydraulic cylinder 5 of; the. double ended. type in. which is slida'oly mounted the spreadable pistons 1-. As. will. be understood, when. liquid is forced under pressure. into. the. center or the cylinder 5,, said pistons. T are spread and. forced to opposite ends of the cylinder. Conversely, upon removal of said hydraulic force, the pistons l are permitted to. return toward the. center porton. of said cylinenlarged,

diet.

For the purpose of actuating the respective mounted upon the fioor i at the end of the car adjacent said pump I0, and extending from said tank [3 is the supply line I to the pump ID, a return line I5 extending from the pump to the supply tank and being provided with a regulating valve 1 6 of the needle or any other suitable type.

Rigid with the respective pistons l and extending from the opposite ends of the cylinder 5 are the rods IT having at their outer ends the sleeves I8 extending around and rotatable relative to the tubular bushings IS in which are rotatable the axles carrying at opposite ends the roller bearing wheels 21 that roll in the tracks 4.

Pivotally mounted upon the tubular bushings 19 are the yokes 23 the other ends of which are connected by pivot pins 24 to brackets U-shaped in cross section, these being designated 25 and being a part of the hinges 26 connected by the hinge pins 21 to the upper ends of the side walls 2. Brackets 25 are rigid with the doors 23, each door 23 extending the full length of the box car and half the width thereof.

It is desired that means he provided for equallizing the movement of the respective doors 28 to open or closed position. To this end, the yokes 23 are rigid with the depending tongues 29 pivotally connected at 30 to the bifurcated ends 3| of elongated equalizer rods 32, pivotally connected at 33 at their opposite ends to the opposite ends of a lever 34 pivotally mounted at its center as at 35 against the end wall 3.

I believe the manner of operation of the apparatus is now more or less obvious from the drawings and description provided. Summarizing said operation briefly, however, it may be noted that when the pump is placed in operation and forces liquid under pressure into the cylinder 5, the respective pistons of the cylinder are spread, so as to force the rods I! outwardly toward the opposite sides of the car, thus to cause the roof sections 28 to swing upwardly upon their hinges to the position shown in Fig. 2. It may be noted from Fig. 2 that in their fully opened positions the roof sections 28 are substan tially vertical, thus to expose the entire inner area of the box car for loading of freight at any location longitudinally thereof, with the exception of course of the small end areas taken up by the apparatus itself. These end areas, however, occupied by the roof opening means are no more than a foot, more or less, in width.

It will be further understood that a single pump it mounted in one box car would feed hydraulic cylinders 5 at both ends of said car simultaneously.

ventional box car might itself comprise the material capable of being divided into a pair of longitudinally extending roof sections 28 each extending half way across the car to the middle of the car and. each hingedly connected to a side wall of the car. Balancing the expense of such conversion is the appreciable benefit to be derived from use of the invention. In a few seconds the entire interior area of the box car can be exposed, and a single crane operator, having one or two helpers, is enabled to load the entire car through the roof thereof in a very short time, thus to keep the car in profitable service almost constantly. Or, the freight can be loaded through chutes provided for the purpose or dropped from overhead structures. In any event, it is possible to load the entire car simultaneously from end to end thereof, as dis tinguished from present day practice in which the freight must be loaded in relatively small amounts through the center door and thence moved toward the opposite ends of the car.

What is claimed is:

1. In a railway car of the type having a bottom platform, vertically extending side and end walls, and doors hingedly carried by the side walls adjacent the upper edges thereof for movement in vertical arcuate paths from a substantially horizontal position in which they wholly cover the bottom platform to a substantially vertical position in which the platform is wholly exposed, means for so moving the doors which includes tubular bushings mounted adjacent the upper edge of an end wall of the car to move in a horizontal path which extends transversely of said car, yokes pivotally carried by the bushings to move in vertical arcuate paths, means pivotally coupling the yokes to the doors, and means mounted within the car adjacent the aforesaid end wall of the car and connected to the bush- V ings to move said bushings in the horizontal path.

2. In a railway car of the type having a bottom platform, vertically extending side and end walls, and doors hingedly carried by the side walls adjacent the upper edges thereof for movement in vertical arcuate paths from a substantially horizontal position in which they wholly cover the bottom platform to a substantially vertical position in which the platform is wholly exposed, means for so moving the doors'which includes tubular bushings mounted adjacent the upper edge of an end wall of the car to move in a horizontal path which extends transversely of said car, yokes pivotally carried by the bushings to move in vertical arcuate paths, means pivotally coupling the yokes to the doors, means mounted within the car adjacent the aforesaid end wall of the car and connected to the bushings to move said bushings in the horizontal path, an elongated lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends to move in a vertical arcuate path adjacent the aforesaid end wall, and equalizer rods pivotally connected to the lever adjacent opposite ends thereof and to the yokes for preserving uniform the movement of the yokes.

3. In a railway car of the type having a bottom platform, vertically extending side and end walls, and doors hingedly carried by the side walls adjacent the upper edges thereof for movement in vertical arcuate paths from a substantially horizontal position in which they wholly cover the bottom platform to a substanti-allyvertical position in which the platform is wholly exposed, means for so moving the doors which includes tubular bushings mounted adjacent the upper edge of an end wall of the car to move in a horizontal path which extends transversely of said car, yokes pivotally carried by the bushings to move in vertical arcuate paths, means pivotally coupling the yokes to the doors, a. cylinder mounted within the car adjacent the aforesaid end wall, pistons mounted Within the cylinder for movement therein, piston rods connected to the pistons and to the bushings for moving said bushings with the pistons, means connected to the cylinder between the pistons for admitting fluid under pressure to said cylinder and moving the pistons, and means carried adjacent the aforesaid end wall and connected to the yokes for equalizing the movements of the pistons.

JOSEPH L. KOVACHICK.

6 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

